Now a story of weird connections: In the 90s, Circle K bought a chain called Dairy Mart, which had earlier bought a Cleveland-based chain called Lawson’s, who in the 1970s licensed their name and concept to a Japanese company. Decades later, Lawson is among the largest convenience store chains in Japan, while the brand hasn’t been seen on US stores since 1985. However, to keep the trademark alive, Circle K stores in Ohio still sell one Lawson’s-branded item, a french onion chip dip.
Company Guy, I’m a fan of you and your great videos! I’m also a guy from Québec, where Couche-Tard comes from, I read Alain Bouchard‘s biography about how he and his team created the Couche-Tard network from the 80s to today. The guy is the son of a gentleman that went through bankruptcy, and now his net worth is around USD 6.5G. They reinvented the typical “dépanneur” 😄 They became a leader first in Québec, then Canada, then elsewhere. That is a superb story in itself, which they brought to a whole new level when they bought Circle K. Couche-Tard could deserve a video of itself, believe me!
I'm living in Sweden and had never heard of Circle K until they bought the Norwegian company Statoil and rebranded their gas stations with the Circle K branding. It's fun seeing the old Statoil logo with the Miles branding alongside the Circle K branding (as the image at 11:02 shows).
Another YT channel I subscribe to is Ran Sailing. They are based out of Sweden and are currently building their new boat there. A couple months ago I was very surprised to see them receive a delivery from a truck with Circle K on it. I didn't realize it was an international company.
That is not quite correct, Circle K only bought the gas station division of the energy company Statoil. Not that it matters, as the remaining energy company shortly after rebranded themselves Equinor. I do miss the Statoil-brand though
@@terribleatgames-rippedoff True, completely forgot about the existence of Equinor. Even tho all the gas stations have been rebranded Circle K, most people I know (including me) still haven't adjusted and just call them "Statoil" anyway out of habit.
In Mexico, all the "Extra" convenience stores were turned into Circle K and we had Circle K stores in border cities of Baja California such as Mexicali, Tijuana and even in San Luis Río Colorado in Sonora but they change the name in late 2015 to VIP Market where they sell both Mexican and American products.
Circle K also existed for some time in the southmost part of Texas, remember growing up that they would be vastly numbered throughout the region until slowly but surely Valero gas stations and Stripes stores started moving in. That's until one day when I realized that there were no more Circle K stores around anymore, had always wondered what had ever happened to them or if they simply got merged through an acquisition. And strangely enough they are making a comeback back to the region once more where its predominately more Sunoco stations with Stripes stores at the moment.
After seeing how Circle K expanded so quickly, I really would love to see you cover the 80's LBO craze. There's an insane amount to talk about there, and given just how frequently over-leveraging comes up in a "Rise and Fall" video, I think it would be an awesome topic.
Frankly, he's long, long, LONG overdue to talk about leveraged buyouts in general, considering how often it comes up in his "decline" videos. Leveraged buyouts probably should've been one of the first videos he ever posted. D:
Personally, I've never heard of Circle K up until 2016 or so, when they appeared all of a sudden. I later found out that all the remaining Statoil petrol stations (Norwegian oil company) were rebranded as Circle K, and was even more surprised to find out that the company was American. Usually our market is avoided by American companies, so it was a great treat of sorts. I do miss seeing the iconic Statoil logo, but at the very least, the service and locations haven't changed.
Same in swedeb. Statoil (former BB brittisk petroleum?) Tjena cirkle K. (Statiol allways hade 3 High flagpost in the statt they had flags with a big K. And thre flags with KKK. 😂 Tog a couple of weeks then de only hade one flagpole with K
People in general in Norway too thought "Circle K" were a weird name as we didn't know it were a global brand. When i'm Sweden i only use Circle K to make sure i get correct gasoline. ;)
Back when I moved out of my parents and I was living with grandma the circle K was a 2 minute walk away. I’d go in every morning for a coffee (and sometimes breakfast if my grandma couldn’t make it) before work and to fill up on gas. They eventually knew me by name. They were good people and they really helped me out when I would go in. Every circle K makes me feel welcome
Once lived next door to a 7-11. And I mean next door. I look back on those years as the phase when I started gaining a lot of weight. But it was very convenient.
I worked at a circle k for about a year on the graveyard shift. The store manager actually took her job really seriously and made sure everyone was taking care of everything from keeping things stocked and faced but also all the cleaning you wouldn't see all that often in other gas station jobs. It was also a crazy high volume store for the area, but we always rocked it out. I don't know if that reflects the company as a whole but if she was anything to go by they absolutely deserve to be at the top.
I think the fact that I read Alimentation Couche-Tard in French in my head before I heard you read it made it even funnier I say that with as much love as I can, you do great work around here!
Definately, i used to take my sweetheart to circle K. She loved those coke flavored icees, unfortunately I guess i bought her one too many because she died of a brain freeze last year. thanks a lot Company man for reminding me
Growing up, my small town had two or three Circle K stores. Nowadays, two of them are different convenience stores (just independently owned) and one, after being a video store for a while, is now a Sheriff's office. One of them used to be in walking distance, so I'd walk down frequently and rent Dragon Warrior 3. I was the only person to rent that game, because mine was the only save on the cartridge and it was always where I left off last rental
I appreciate company man's detailed videos even if it's for a gas station down the street from me that i literally visit when drunk to get even drunker
The new management at Couche-Tard is much more experienced at such acquisitions. And looking at their financials, they are doing great so I doubt it would be a worry in the near future, even if they keep the aggressive acquisitions.
I remember Circle K being a grungy lower end convenience store and 7-11 being a clean more organized store. The only store lower end was the U-Totum stores. Then Circle K had a major remodeling of their stores and this lead to a complete image overhaul. This made the 7-11 stores look in need of a an update that never happened. Circle K took over by far here in Arizona. Currently their coffee is fantastic!
Great video, Mike. Since you mentioned them, I love to see you do a video on Casey's convenience stores Also love to see you discuss Wawa. Both are big regional chains with strong followings.
As a little aside to the Couche-Tard part, they also owned the Canadian store chain Mac's and when they acquired Circle K in the late 2010's, all of the former Mac's stores became Circle K's. I live in Southern Ontario and had never seen a Circle K store until that happened (Mac's was very popular, especially in and near Toronto).
There are still a good number of Mac's milk stores across Ontario, it is a slow phase out. Originally Mac's was a chain with a Scottish cat in a tam as the mascot, then got the owl when Couche-tard took over. Becker's is still around as a franchise store
2:04 Fun fact, a lot of Japanese companies are called Maru something (Maru Gen, Maru Beni, Maru Ki, etc.) and the maru part literally means circle and describes the logo being something (usually taken from the owner’s name) enclosed in a cicle. This logo design was common in Japan before the WWII and persumaly the naming pattern arose from how people started calling companies by their logos. I wonder if the same happened to Circle K.
"maru" is also a phonetic that is typical in Japanese names. So like the character Shikamaru from _Naruto_ and Benimaru from _Fire Force_ so on and so forth. I guess a way of explaining it is that "-maru" is a common part of first name similar to how "-son" is a common part of last names, like Jackson, Roberton, Johnson, Anderson, etc.
Circle K expanded to my home country, Mongolia, in around 2016. i remember buying polar pop hotdog combo, those slushies right after class with my ex. memories ^-^ They struggled to survive even tho they were the first convenient store to enter the market. 4 years later, they sold all their locations to CU (korean brand that competed with them) now there is only 2 convenient stores, CU and GS25. operated and controlled by local giants.
Circle K is large presence in my local area (where 2 interstates meet). They finally upgraded their stores in the last 5 years. Much nicer, but they are not very clean and management seems lacking. This might just be a labor problem as we also have similar issues with Speedway and Pilot/Flying J (4 stores within 3 miles!). I also notice some of the Circle K stores were apparently franchised and they divested themselves of these and are now independent. Wish we had a WaWa.
It's not just a management issue it's a circle k issue, managers and the region I was a manager in are barely even allowed to discipline employees and firing one is like trying to pull teeth, because it might cost some profits to train a new one.
I went 30 years of my life never knowingly seeing a Circle K apart from the one in Bill & Ted, but over the last several years they have been popping up everywhere near me. I'm guessing it was a mass acquisition in the area because most of the Speedway stores in our region are now Circle K. I love it, they are much nicer stores.
I recently saw a Circle K pop up in Southeast Michigan, in the last year or so. To be honest this was the first time I had ever seen one in my area! Looking at their location map, it's the only one in the Metro Detroit area. I've always known 7-11, but this is a first for me. Thanks for the great info, as always!
My best Circle K story: In the early 80s I was flying my hot air balloon. While I was flying a thick fog developed below me. My chase crew in my truck could no longer see where I was flying. We didn't have cell phones back then and aircraft radios were expensive. We always relied on visual contact. So my crew had no idea where I was. I kept flying and the fog thinned out and I saw a Circle K store below. I landed in the parking lot of the Circle K and used the pay phone to call my wife at home. I told her to tell my crew if they call her that I'm at the Circle K in the Sedco Hills. Sure enough they called her from another pay phone to see if I had called, they got the information and found me at the Circle K eating a burrito and drinking a coke next to my deflated balloon in the parking lot.
@@OpioidZ140 You calling me a liar? What proof do you have that I made that up? Just because your life experience is so boring that you can't imagine anyone landing a hot air balloon in a circle K parking lot, doesn't mean some people actually have exciting and fulfilling lives.
I grew up in Phoenix in the 80's and Circle K's were everywhere. There were intersections where there would literally be a Circle K on three of the four corners. Circle K was a way of life.
HELL YEAH! All over Valley of the Sun, also QT quick trips! I miss Polar Pops since I went from living & working at Superstition springs Walmart to Idaho, but the news said it would be 120° the next day so I fueled up and bagged ass! That was the first time I started the Volvo since Early March! I just stayed in the parking lot or worked inside for months!
I live In Quebec where Alimentation Couche-Tard is from. My guess to why they did not rebrand Couche-Tard to Circle K is because of French laws and the somewhat good reputation of the brand. They are in the process of switching all stores to the Circle K colors (instead of the blue and red) and placing the Owl logo in the circle instead of the K.
Great video. On the topic of gas station convenience stores, it might be interesting to compare Sheetz to Wawa, two popular Pennsylvania based chains with huge followings.
If you listen to any episode of the podcast Well There's Your Problem, which is based in North Philadelphia, you'll hear them mention Sheetz and Wawa. They're practically mascots of the show, along with the Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 and Norfolk Southern derailments. I live in Indiana, so at first, I didn't know what the hell they were talking about. Now I know they expanded to Florida, and why.
Arguably "Target" describes its logo. I always thought Circle K was made up for Bill & Ted's until a year or two ago when one opened up near me. I'd never seen one in the two areas of the country I've lived in since returning to the US in 1992. The gas prices sucked so I think I've been there once when I was low and forgot to get gas earlier.
I grew up in New Orleans. I can remember when CK was expanding while 7/11 were declining in locations. In the 2000s I moved overseas. I noticed both brands prominently around the world. I did notice that CK stores declined in New Orleans, but also noticed they were still very global. This video explained this quite well.
Interesting to hear you mention Karl Eller so much in this video. He was raised here in Tucson and attended the University of Arizona here, even its business school is named after him, as are many things in this state. An instrumental figure in building business in Arizona for sure, save for that all-too-aggressive acquisition campaign you mentioned. Great stuff as always!
Because I grew up on U.S. air-force bases, for the most part I can only remember going to 7-Elevens as they were more likely to be the only convenient stores around the bases that I lived on, (at least at the time.) In all actuality, I probably didn't even realize that Circle K existed until I saw, "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure." 😄
As a kid growing up in New England in the 1980s, I thought Circle K was just something made up for Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. When I took a trip to Colorado in the 90s, I was shocked to see it was real. Now they're everywhere.
Circle K in Ireland are everywhere. Bland brand. A lot of the sites they took over were at one time Statoil, a Norwegian company who were innovative in store and forecourt design. The store was designed so you walked in one end and exited the other end in a horseshoe pattern, passing everything in the store. The forecourt canopies sometimes had clear portions worked in to allow natural light to the pumps.
Doing an episode on Couche-Tard itself wouldn't be a bad idea. Being from Québec, I never had any idea the company was THAT gargantuan until I started my own research into them.
Another southern Ontarian here, We had Beckers locally. The one in my town became a Mac’s Milk because they usually had milk as a loss leader on their signs. It’s your typical convenience store/dépanneur/bodega and gas station. Mac’s became Circle K. I never knew the relation between the brands before this video. Thank you Company Gentleman for your film!
I grew up in Phoenix during the 90s, and even as they started closing stores hand over fist, they still often had 2 or more stores on the same intersection, or within a block of each other. I had a job at circle k for a short time at the turn of the century, and drove past 5-7 on the way to the one I worked at, depending on which way I drove to get there. It was a 4 mile drive, and I often picked up shifts at these other stores when the district manager was desperate enough to throw $50 gift cards at me to cover a shift... Pay wasn't horrible, but after someone got brutally murdered with a screwdriver at the store up the road from me one night over $17 in the cash register, I decided to make a career change.
Yeah I currently work at one and I was held up like 4 years ago during one of my overnights. It's not about job it's just depends on the location you're at and unfortunately I was at the one South of Guad.
Couche-Tard acquired a chain of stores here in the Midwest called Holiday, and they kept that name. However I think the beverage cups at Holiday have the Circle-K logo on them, and I think there are also a few actual Circle Ks around here (Minnesota).
@@kneemeister Many Holiday stores around here are getting red/orange stripes that look more like Circle K branding. The stores are still Holiday but they might have some Circle K labeled items inside.
Again, I'm in a part of the U.S. that doesn't get this brand. I didn't hear about Circle K before Bill & Ted, and if it weren't for Company Man, I'd never have heard of it again.
This reminded me of the Circle K my friends and I would visit at 2am after the bar. We still called it the Irving, since it was an Irving gas station for years. I'd always get one of those crappy microwaveable cheeseburgers and a Gatorade, then get out quickly. Then the rest of us would spend at least 10 minutes outside for the guy I was dating at the time to stop dicking around inside, chatting with the cashier. Thanks for the memories!
Living in a market that was largely untouched by both Circle K and 7-Eleven until a couple years ago, I have a few things to add. 1] The Circle K rebranding is not quite complete here. Couche-Tard bought the Holiday Stationstores brand here in I believe 2016 or 2017. I believe one of the stipulations of the sale is the Holiday name had to be very gradually sunset, to the point that in 2023 renos of existing locations and builds of new locations carry the Circle K color scheme but are still branded as Holiday. 2) 7-Eleven exited this market sometime in the early 80s, selling their company stores and franchise rights to Ashland Oil, and all the stores were converted to SuperAmerica. Then in between 1990 and 2016, Ashland was acquired by Marathon, the non-gas stores were sold, the SA stores operated as a cobrand with Speedway which was later spun off by Marathon, the SA stores and Minnesota refinery were sold to a private firm, Speedway then bought back all the non-refining assets of SA, finally rebranding them as Speedway, and then a few months later 7-Eleven announced they were acquiring Speedway. BUT! The Speedway brand apparently carries enough regional cachet that they aren’t rebranding, yet you can still get Slurpees and Big Gulps there. All of this is to say that these 2 behemoths of convenience stores exist here but with almost none of the brand recognition.
Holiday Station Stores are so ingrained in my area that it would be a huge culture shock if they rebranded too quickly. I think they would have lost profits and stores had they completely rebranded too soon.
I've been buying gas at Circle K for the last couple of years. They tend to be the cheapest stations in town, and if you sign up for their "Easy Pay" program, you get an additional 10 cents off a gallon. I rarely shop the inside of the stores since it's mostly filled with sugary/fattening/unhealthy food and drink options, but their gas prices are great!
Being from quebec I never heard of circle k until around 12 or so years back traveling to ontario and finding all the mac's stores (which I assumed were owned by couche-tard) had changed to circle k's and then our local couche tard's were upgrading to get the food counters and polar pop fountains like seen in the video. Thanks for this video it awnsered a few of my ?'s.
i actually work for Circle K and you didn't mention the self checkouts that some stores have. I finally happened to move to a store where one exist and they are NOT like walmart or Sam's Club! its very interesting that they use a set of 4 AI Cameras to allow you to place your items on it's platform while it visually scans your items, lets you check out and pay for said items. but its not always correct and I've noticed one major issue is that since its considered a "self-checkout" 90% of anything done on it minus cigarettes, alcohol, ebt, fuel discount cards, gift cards and coupons or discounts is done by the customer right? well if a customer is using the ai camera system and we as an employee are busy checking another customer they could potentially steal an item even if they arent trying to. im sorry but i wish the self check-outs would go away!!!!
I went to a Circle-K not long ago and saw the new self checkout, it was maddening. One employee was working, doing sandwiches (inventory) and things, and the other employee was guiding the customers to the self checkout as they just stood there leaning on it just watching, it was the silliest thing I've ever witnessed. "Here, do this yourself but also, I'ma lounge here and watch you".
@@Not.Giuseppe similar to how Safeway supermarket has a person that oversees the operations of the self-checkout machines. If someone has a problem or needs an ID check then the employees and come over and check the ID or fix the issue.
Phoenix is Circle K's "hometown"...their original store design was a block building with an upsweft roof with exposed beams and a large glass storefront (as in the B&W photos). Most of these stores have gone on to other retailers but still have the design features. Here QuikTrip entered the market 10 years ago and is now the main competitor to Circle K.
I worked for a very good friend who had a friend sized Circle K. This was back in the day when your soft drinks or full service. I work the swing shift 3 to 11 p.m. shift which means I have the influx of middle-school and high-school students coming in right after school. The analysts as I am I recognized his profit loss in Theft was narrow to candy and chips which pretty much meant if we're the high school students who welcomed them self to those items without pay. I put up a sign for students at a time allowed in the store between 3 and 5 p.m. Store profit margin increased and the theft lowered dramatically. The students were not pleased with that sign so I thought of another exercise to increase sales in the soft-drink department. I simply turn the machines around to face the back aisle and made it feasible for self-service drinks. I remember putting up a sign saying "Serve Yourself" it was less work for us the students loved it as did most of the patrons and as we know the margin of profit is great with soft drink. This occurred in Las Vegas and we became Circle K's first or you offered Self Serve soft drinks
How about the rise and fall of Eastbay. When I was in middle and high school everybody loved getting those magazines and circling the shoes and apparel you’d probably never get lol.
I'm from Canada. I swear everyone I have ever talked too is under the assumption that Circle K expanded into Canada and bought our biggest convenience store franchise (Mac's Milk). Essentially brute forcing there way into the market, similar to what Target did... This video is a complete suprise to me!
And Becker's. There's one Becker's left in Pembroke, Ontario. I'm sure there might be more, but that's the last one I saw. Before that it was over 20 years.
@r.foersom seulement au Quebec. Only in Quebec. There are some French towns in Alberta, but the map won't load to see if any are out there, but if there were you'd think some would be in Ontario in the predominantly French speaking towns.
I just saw your video on Buc-ee's recently (good video)😃 and it said that we'll have a store in Mebane North Carolina. You should do a video on Sheetz!
I remember in college, there were two Circle Ks across the street from my dorm. It was great, because if you wanted something at night and couldn't find it at one of the stores, you could just go across the street to the other one
LOL I grew up in Quebec (Eastern Townships) and I have been in many Couche-Tards/Provi-Soirs during the 80's and early 90's and to know that their corporate head-honchos bought Circle K... just freaking amazing. And the company got an expansion into Europe now as well? Incredible business skills.
We got Circle K here in Ireland a few years ago. It wasn’t until I heard it mentioned in some true crime story that I realised it was a big American brand. They have a great loyalty programme over here where you get free treats and stuff
Here in Amarillo, TX about a year ago Circle K just open its 1st store. I love it. It reminds me of going to Lubbock, TX to visit my daughter at Texas Tech. She always go to Circle K and glad they open one in Amarillo, TX. I think they are opening 2 more in Amarillo, TX cant wait
Couche-Tard is an interesting topic in itself. I worked in a Mac's for 10 years. At the time I started, they had Mac's, Becker's, Mike's Mart, and Couche-Tard. The eastern part of the country including Quebec had Couche Tard, while Ontario west was all rebranded to Mac's.. Then when they purchased Circle K, they did that rebrand. I haven't been in a Circle K yet though.
Can you please make a video on the rise and fall of The Wiz? It was a major electronics store in the northeast from the 70's to the 90's that died in 2003.
I know of one other company that the name describes the logo. It’s “Square D” which makes electrical panels and a lot of other electrical infrastructure.
Circle K doesn't have many stores under their own name around me. But their parent company _did_ buy major local chain Holiday Stationstores in 2017. So far they haven't rebranded it -- Holiday is just _too_ well-known here, I imagine -- though I suspect they've consolidated a lot of the operations. (Employee uniforms have said "Circle K" since then, for one. Meanwhile competitor Speedway bought out SuperAmerica around then too, and _did_ rebrand them all as Speedway. But the stores are (in my experience) still a bit shabbier inside than Holiday's, and the name wasn't nearly as familiar here as SuperAmerica. 7-11's parent company bought Speedway in 2020-21, but has yet to rebrand them as 7-11.
I'm seeing more and more Circle K branded stuff in my local Holiday stores, so I'm guessing a complete rebrand to Circle K for the stores themselves is only a matter of time. I'd hate to see it, Holiday is my favorite local chain, but as long as they keep the high quality of the current stores, I won't gripe too much.
1. I got a new fancy 4K quality TV and this is the first UA-cam video I’ve watched on it that has a quality high enough for me to realize it’s SO PRETTY 2. The reason I like Circle K is the fresh grind coffee machines they put in somewhere in the past 1-3 years. I’ve since seen them other places but it was the first and is currently the only convenience store around me with it, so I often stop there for gas just so I can get the coffee 😂
Couche-Tard bought all the old Statoil filling stations in the Nordics and Baltics as well as Topaz in Ireland, which was Statoil until the 2000s. Now in Ireland we have a massive amount of Circle Ks but almost all of them sell fuel, there's a handful of standalone Circle K convenience stores in larger cities but that's it. I thought it was silly at first, given Topaz was a relatively new brand itself (consolidating what were the Shell and Esso networks as well as Statoil), but it's won me over. Plus they have the corporate strength to invest in EV charging, they're rolling out 350kW units across the network now
Couch-Tard which is french "sleep late" but is referencing a person who sleeps late known as a "night owl" hence their logo. It is a Quebec based convenience store and was known for being the first convenience stores in Quebec to stay open until 11:00pm.
All the "Mac's" convenience stores (owned by Alimentation Couche-Tard since 1999) in Canada rebranded to Circle K in 2017, and frankly they're a lot better now. The renovations really upped the quality (a lot of Mac's locations were kind of old and run down in my area of western Canada).
As an employee of Utotum in the 1970's, I was pleased that you mentioned that company. It's where I was held up at gunpoint one night. Ah, memories!
Sounds like a good time
I remember U tote M being mentioned in a Lyle Lovett song...
Good old UToteM. We used to have one up the road in the late 70s-early 80s. I'd forgotten all about them, it's been so long.
@@ironrey8 I have a couple of his albums. I'll have to dig them out of storage and try to find it. Cool!
you gotta make a story time on this
Now a story of weird connections: In the 90s, Circle K bought a chain called Dairy Mart, which had earlier bought a Cleveland-based chain called Lawson’s, who in the 1970s licensed their name and concept to a Japanese company. Decades later, Lawson is among the largest convenience store chains in Japan, while the brand hasn’t been seen on US stores since 1985. However, to keep the trademark alive, Circle K stores in Ohio still sell one Lawson’s-branded item, a french onion chip dip.
I just want to try that Lawson’s fried chicken Abroad in Japan always talks about
That chip dip is legit the only French onion dip I will eat. It’s so good and makes every other brand taste like trash in comparison.
I remember Dairy Mart and Lawsons and to this day Lawsons French onion dip is still the best.
Yes!! The Lawsons dip is AMAZING
I was in China one month before COVID hit. Finding a Lawson's there was a life saver. However in my jetlag I thought it wasn't open 24/7, IDIOT!
Company Man once again teaches us that we need to expand slowly, and maintain control of our businesses. OR ELSE.
There’s always a lesson to be learned! Great videos to watch for company management!
Well yeah. "Keep it super simple" is a good strategy for many things. If your customers get mixed messages, that affects sales.
Company Guy, I’m a fan of you and your great videos! I’m also a guy from Québec, where Couche-Tard comes from, I read Alain Bouchard‘s biography about how he and his team created the Couche-Tard network from the 80s to today. The guy is the son of a gentleman that went through bankruptcy, and now his net worth is around USD 6.5G. They reinvented the typical “dépanneur” 😄 They became a leader first in Québec, then Canada, then elsewhere. That is a superb story in itself, which they brought to a whole new level when they bought Circle K. Couche-Tard could deserve a video of itself, believe me!
I'm living in Sweden and had never heard of Circle K until they bought the Norwegian company Statoil and rebranded their gas stations with the Circle K branding. It's fun seeing the old Statoil logo with the Miles branding alongside the Circle K branding (as the image at 11:02 shows).
Agree! I'm Norwegian and think it's a shame that they replaced Statoil. But it's pretty much the same, though 🤷♂️
Another YT channel I subscribe to is Ran Sailing. They are based out of Sweden and are currently building their new boat there. A couple months ago I was very surprised to see them receive a delivery from a truck with Circle K on it. I didn't realize it was an international company.
They replaced Statoil in Ireland too! I need to look out for the old Statoil Miles branding next time I visit one
That is not quite correct, Circle K only bought the gas station division of the energy company Statoil. Not that it matters, as the remaining energy company shortly after rebranded themselves Equinor. I do miss the Statoil-brand though
@@terribleatgames-rippedoff True, completely forgot about the existence of Equinor.
Even tho all the gas stations have been rebranded Circle K, most people I know (including me) still haven't adjusted and just call them "Statoil" anyway out of habit.
In Mexico, all the "Extra" convenience stores were turned into Circle K and we had Circle K stores in border cities of Baja California such as Mexicali, Tijuana and even in San Luis Río Colorado in Sonora but they change the name in late 2015 to VIP Market where they sell both Mexican and American products.
Circle K also existed for some time in the southmost part of Texas, remember growing up that they would be vastly numbered throughout the region until slowly but surely Valero gas stations and Stripes stores started moving in. That's until one day when I realized that there were no more Circle K stores around anymore, had always wondered what had ever happened to them or if they simply got merged through an acquisition. And strangely enough they are making a comeback back to the region once more where its predominately more Sunoco stations with Stripes stores at the moment.
After seeing how Circle K expanded so quickly, I really would love to see you cover the 80's LBO craze. There's an insane amount to talk about there, and given just how frequently over-leveraging comes up in a "Rise and Fall" video, I think it would be an awesome topic.
Frankly, he's long, long, LONG overdue to talk about leveraged buyouts in general, considering how often it comes up in his "decline" videos. Leveraged buyouts probably should've been one of the first videos he ever posted. D:
Personally, I've never heard of Circle K up until 2016 or so, when they appeared all of a sudden. I later found out that all the remaining Statoil petrol stations (Norwegian oil company) were rebranded as Circle K, and was even more surprised to find out that the company was American. Usually our market is avoided by American companies, so it was a great treat of sorts. I do miss seeing the iconic Statoil logo, but at the very least, the service and locations haven't changed.
Now at least it’s a proudly quebecois company, with great values too
Same in swedeb. Statoil (former BB brittisk petroleum?)
Tjena cirkle K. (Statiol allways hade 3 High flagpost in the statt they had flags with a big K. And thre flags with KKK. 😂
Tog a couple of weeks then de only hade one flagpole with K
I remember getting pretty confused when Statoil became CircleK since we already had a competing chain named OK 😄
People in general in Norway too thought "Circle K" were a weird name as we didn't know it were a global brand.
When i'm Sweden i only use Circle K to make sure i get correct gasoline. ;)
Same thing happened in ireland, now almost every station is american, either texaco or circle k with a few irish ones like applegreen
Back when I moved out of my parents and I was living with grandma the circle K was a 2 minute walk away. I’d go in every morning for a coffee (and sometimes breakfast if my grandma couldn’t make it) before work and to fill up on gas. They eventually knew me by name. They were good people and they really helped me out when I would go in. Every circle K makes me feel welcome
Same here!! I’m in Houston every day star at circle K with a coffee! I think they have the best coffee in town always fresh!!
Once lived next door to a 7-11. And I mean next door. I look back on those years as the phase when I started gaining a lot of weight. But it was very convenient.
I worked at a circle k for about a year on the graveyard shift. The store manager actually took her job really seriously and made sure everyone was taking care of everything from keeping things stocked and faced but also all the cleaning you wouldn't see all that often in other gas station jobs. It was also a crazy high volume store for the area, but we always rocked it out. I don't know if that reflects the company as a whole but if she was anything to go by they absolutely deserve to be at the top.
Nah. Circle K is grungy AF
@@Lobonovayou've never been to a 7/11 in the bay area then.
Thats just pride in her work, no matter where she worker. Circle k has absolutley nothing to do with that
It's probably her own work ethic!
11:10 Circle K rebuilding itself to 3x size before the fall is lowkey a bit inspirational, you may fall, but you can come back stronger
Hi, heisenberg fan
This is terrifying coming from Heisenberg
😆 2:30
Both in the empire business
I think the fact that I read Alimentation Couche-Tard in French in my head before I heard you read it made it even funnier
I say that with as much love as I can, you do great work around here!
Now this is the one I’ve been waiting for. Amazing content!
Definately, i used to take my sweetheart to circle K. She loved those coke flavored icees, unfortunately I guess i bought her one too many because she died of a brain freeze last year. thanks a lot Company man for reminding me
@@benjaminwatt2436 hol up
Growing up, my small town had two or three Circle K stores. Nowadays, two of them are different convenience stores (just independently owned) and one, after being a video store for a while, is now a Sheriff's office. One of them used to be in walking distance, so I'd walk down frequently and rent Dragon Warrior 3. I was the only person to rent that game, because mine was the only save on the cartridge and it was always where I left off last rental
Being a fan of the Company Man is like being a fan of Circle K before they added the K to their name
Connoreatspants fan spotted
@@kd5751 I dont eat pants
🤨What the hell does this mean?
@@robertcuratolo5339 had same question, was looking here for answers
average conar watcher
Was waiting right from the beginning of this video for the line from Bill and Ted. Well played!
In advance, happy anniversary on Friday, Company Man!!!!!
I appreciate company man's detailed videos even if it's for a gas station down the street from me that i literally visit when drunk to get even drunker
The second rise of Circle K in the 2000s honestly sounds like it could result in another all-too-similar fall with all those acquisitions.
I noticed the same thing. Sounds like they're making the same mistake the guy before them made.
It depends on how much of it was financed. Debt really is a big hindrance to profits both on a household scale and on a large corporate scale.
The new management at Couche-Tard is much more experienced at such acquisitions. And looking at their financials, they are doing great so I doubt it would be a worry in the near future, even if they keep the aggressive acquisitions.
These “rise, fall, rise again” stories are always so heartwarming.
These videos hit the spot any time I just have no idea what I want to watch
I remember Circle K being a grungy lower end convenience store and 7-11 being a clean more organized store. The only store lower end was the U-Totum stores. Then Circle K had a major remodeling of their stores and this lead to a complete image overhaul. This made the 7-11 stores look in need of a an update that never happened. Circle K took over by far here in Arizona. Currently their coffee is fantastic!
Well the choice in our Grand Canyon State is basically Circle K or QuikTrip. And there's way more ghetto Circle Ks than ghetto QuikTrips.
HELL YEAH!
As a kid in the 90’s My local Circle K was always dirty and messy. 😂
most circle Ks im familiar with are pretty trashy. employees and customers both.
7-11 is now the grungy store in comparison to Quiktrip.
Great video, Mike.
Since you mentioned them, I love to see you do a video on Casey's convenience stores
Also love to see you discuss Wawa.
Both are big regional chains with strong followings.
I would love to see wawa too. I've been working for them a long time.
As a little aside to the Couche-Tard part, they also owned the Canadian store chain Mac's and when they acquired Circle K in the late 2010's, all of the former Mac's stores became Circle K's. I live in Southern Ontario and had never seen a Circle K store until that happened (Mac's was very popular, especially in and near Toronto).
Mac's/Couche-tard stores were very popular all across Canada. I still have a Mac's-branded store near me. It might the only one left!
Rip Mac's Milk.
Also, Couche-Tard is French for Night Owl, which is why the logo for Couche-Tard and Mac's was an owl.
And before that it was beckers
There are still a good number of Mac's milk stores across Ontario, it is a slow phase out.
Originally Mac's was a chain with a Scottish cat in a tam as the mascot, then got the owl when Couche-tard took over.
Becker's is still around as a franchise store
2:04 Fun fact, a lot of Japanese companies are called Maru something (Maru Gen, Maru Beni, Maru Ki, etc.) and the maru part literally means circle and describes the logo being something (usually taken from the owner’s name) enclosed in a cicle. This logo design was common in Japan before the WWII and persumaly the naming pattern arose from how people started calling companies by their logos. I wonder if the same happened to Circle K.
"maru" is also a phonetic that is typical in Japanese names. So like the character Shikamaru from _Naruto_ and Benimaru from _Fire Force_ so on and so forth. I guess a way of explaining it is that "-maru" is a common part of first name similar to how "-son" is a common part of last names, like Jackson, Roberton, Johnson, Anderson, etc.
"Strange things are afront at the Circle K." Love that line from "Bill & Ted's "Excellent Adventures."
Sadly, I don't live near one however.
This was the quote I was looking for! First thing that popped in my mind. Love that movie, lol.
*afoot
Circle K expanded to my home country, Mongolia, in around 2016.
i remember buying polar pop hotdog combo, those slushies right after class with my ex. memories ^-^
They struggled to survive even tho they were the first convenient store to enter the market. 4 years later, they sold all their locations to CU (korean brand that competed with them)
now there is only 2 convenient stores, CU and GS25. operated and controlled by local giants.
Circle K is large presence in my local area (where 2 interstates meet). They finally upgraded their stores in the last 5 years. Much nicer, but they are not very clean and management seems lacking. This might just be a labor problem as we also have similar issues with Speedway and Pilot/Flying J (4 stores within 3 miles!). I also notice some of the Circle K stores were apparently franchised and they divested themselves of these and are now independent. Wish we had a WaWa.
Speedway is owned by 7 eleven now
Yeah, in Idaho the Pilot & Flying J places are dirty and expensive
@jackphillips3512, since I‘ e never heard of Wawa, I’ll search on Google;however, I’m guessing it’s a convenience store with a gas station.
It's not just a management issue it's a circle k issue, managers and the region I was a manager in are barely even allowed to discipline employees and firing one is like trying to pull teeth, because it might cost some profits to train a new one.
Hello, do you know a George Phillips from Mesa AZ ?
I went 30 years of my life never knowingly seeing a Circle K apart from the one in Bill & Ted, but over the last several years they have been popping up everywhere near me. I'm guessing it was a mass acquisition in the area because most of the Speedway stores in our region are now Circle K. I love it, they are much nicer stores.
I used to visit the Circle K where they filmed Bill and Ted in Arizona
@@mikethemechanic7395 That one recently got demolished didn’t it?
@@insaneiaq Nor sure. Have not lived in AZ since 2000.
Watching this while drinking a polar pop lol
Polar Pop "Sounds unique, but it isnt"
I remember when they were thirst busters 😂😂
Where else can I get a 33 oz Mountain Dew Voltage for 99 cents?
@@MayorOfEarth79 where you getting yours for 99c?
The XL cost 1.19
I have the sip n save plan. For $9.99 (was 5.99) I get one drink a day.
I recently saw a Circle K pop up in Southeast Michigan, in the last year or so. To be honest this was the first time I had ever seen one in my area! Looking at their location map, it's the only one in the Metro Detroit area. I've always known 7-11, but this is a first for me. Thanks for the great info, as always!
Thank you for the hard work that goes into these!
My best Circle K story:
In the early 80s I was flying my hot air balloon. While I was flying a thick fog developed below me. My chase crew in my truck could no longer see where I was flying. We didn't have cell phones back then and aircraft radios were expensive. We always relied on visual contact. So my crew had no idea where I was. I kept flying and the fog thinned out and I saw a Circle K store below. I landed in the parking lot of the Circle K and used the pay phone to call my wife at home. I told her to tell my crew if they call her that I'm at the Circle K in the Sedco Hills. Sure enough they called her from another pay phone to see if I had called, they got the information and found me at the Circle K eating a burrito and drinking a coke next to my deflated balloon in the parking lot.
That's a wild story haha. I'm curious. Are you in the US and is it legal to fly hot air balloon at the place you live?
@@cloudynguyen6527 Yes
Bill & Ted must've said "Woooahh!" as you came in for a landing.
People making shit up
@@OpioidZ140 You calling me a liar? What proof do you have that I made that up? Just because your life experience is so boring that you can't imagine anyone landing a hot air balloon in a circle K parking lot, doesn't mean some people actually have exciting and fulfilling lives.
In Minnesota, we know Circle K as Holiday. I didn't know Holiday was owned by Circle K until quite recently.
I hate when I get to a Circle K that isn't a gas station, but just a convenience store
I grew up in Phoenix in the 80's and Circle K's were everywhere. There were intersections where there would literally be a Circle K on three of the four corners. Circle K was a way of life.
HELL YEAH! All over Valley of the Sun, also QT quick trips! I miss Polar Pops since I went from living & working at Superstition springs Walmart to Idaho, but the news said it would be 120° the next day so I fueled up and bagged ass! That was the first time I started the Volvo since Early March! I just stayed in the parking lot or worked inside for months!
I was hoping for the "Strange things are afoot at the Circle K" reference, and I was not disappointed.
I live In Quebec where Alimentation Couche-Tard is from. My guess to why they did not rebrand Couche-Tard to Circle K is because of French laws and the somewhat good reputation of the brand. They are in the process of switching all stores to the Circle K colors (instead of the blue and red) and placing the Owl logo in the circle instead of the K.
I worked for circle k for quite a few years and my experience says that the corporation does NOT care about its employees, just the revenue.
Great video. On the topic of gas station convenience stores, it might be interesting to compare Sheetz to Wawa, two popular Pennsylvania based chains with huge followings.
If you listen to any episode of the podcast Well There's Your Problem, which is based in North Philadelphia, you'll hear them mention Sheetz and Wawa. They're practically mascots of the show, along with the Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 and Norfolk Southern derailments.
I live in Indiana, so at first, I didn't know what the hell they were talking about. Now I know they expanded to Florida, and why.
There are only two things that I hate in this world, bigots who judge people for unimportant characteristics, and people who shop at Sheetz.
When I was a kid, Circle K was my go to store for adult magazines because the clerks didn't ask for ID.
Praying that there's never a fall of the Company Man. Still killing it 6 years on, my friend!
Arguably "Target" describes its logo. I always thought Circle K was made up for Bill & Ted's until a year or two ago when one opened up near me. I'd never seen one in the two areas of the country I've lived in since returning to the US in 1992. The gas prices sucked so I think I've been there once when I was low and forgot to get gas earlier.
I grew up in New Orleans. I can remember when CK was expanding while 7/11 were declining in locations. In the 2000s I moved overseas. I noticed both brands prominently around the world. I did notice that CK stores declined in New Orleans, but also noticed they were still very global. This video explained this quite well.
Circle K is now in the process of absorbing and rebranding Holiday Staition stores in Minnesota.
Interesting to hear you mention Karl Eller so much in this video. He was raised here in Tucson and attended the University of Arizona here, even its business school is named after him, as are many things in this state. An instrumental figure in building business in Arizona for sure, save for that all-too-aggressive acquisition campaign you mentioned. Great stuff as always!
Because I grew up on U.S. air-force bases, for the most part I can only remember going to 7-Elevens as they were more likely to be the only convenient stores around the bases that I lived on, (at least at the time.) In all actuality, I probably didn't even realize that Circle K existed until I saw, "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure." 😄
Don't forget Regular Show....
As a kid growing up in New England in the 1980s, I thought Circle K was just something made up for Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. When I took a trip to Colorado in the 90s, I was shocked to see it was real. Now they're everywhere.
Circle K in Ireland are everywhere. Bland brand. A lot of the sites they took over were at one time Statoil, a Norwegian company who were innovative in store and forecourt design. The store was designed so you walked in one end and exited the other end in a horseshoe pattern, passing everything in the store. The forecourt canopies sometimes had clear portions worked in to allow natural light to the pumps.
I’m from El Paso and there are quite a few Circle K stores around. I think they are far better than 7/11.
Circle K offers employees mug for free fountain drinks during their shifts... perhaps this might enlighten the issue with their health insurance plan.
2:30 I knew there had to be a clip from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure in this video somewhere!
My local Mac's just became a Circle K several months ago.
Weird so did mine but it was years ago.
It’s now an independent business as Sheetz moved in across the street and scared Circle K off.
The two closest to me did a couple years ago, and now both are closed. I miss my Polar Pop
My mother worked at Circle K while was living in Phoenix in the early '80's, I can say that the newer stores are a LOT more pleasing to the eye.
Doing an episode on Couche-Tard itself wouldn't be a bad idea. Being from Québec, I never had any idea the company was THAT gargantuan until I started my own research into them.
Another southern Ontarian here,
We had Beckers locally. The one in my town became a Mac’s Milk because they usually had milk as a loss leader on their signs. It’s your typical convenience store/dépanneur/bodega and gas station. Mac’s became Circle K. I never knew the relation between the brands before this video. Thank you Company Gentleman for your film!
I grew up in Phoenix during the 90s, and even as they started closing stores hand over fist, they still often had 2 or more stores on the same intersection, or within a block of each other. I had a job at circle k for a short time at the turn of the century, and drove past 5-7 on the way to the one I worked at, depending on which way I drove to get there. It was a 4 mile drive, and I often picked up shifts at these other stores when the district manager was desperate enough to throw $50 gift cards at me to cover a shift... Pay wasn't horrible, but after someone got brutally murdered with a screwdriver at the store up the road from me one night over $17 in the cash register, I decided to make a career change.
Yeah I currently work at one and I was held up like 4 years ago during one of my overnights. It's not about job it's just depends on the location you're at and unfortunately I was at the one South of Guad.
Good job. I never heard of them before moving to N. FL in 2007. They were everywhere and I never heard anything about them b4
Couche-Tard acquired a chain of stores here in the Midwest called Holiday, and they kept that name. However I think the beverage cups at Holiday have the Circle-K logo on them, and I think there are also a few actual Circle Ks around here (Minnesota).
My new local Circle K actually looks like a Holiday Store inside. And the last time I was in the UP I was surprised to see Circle K branded snacks.
@@kneemeister Many Holiday stores around here are getting red/orange stripes that look more like Circle K branding. The stores are still Holiday but they might have some Circle K labeled items inside.
Again, I'm in a part of the U.S. that doesn't get this brand. I didn't hear about Circle K before Bill & Ted, and if it weren't for Company Man, I'd never have heard of it again.
This reminded me of the Circle K my friends and I would visit at 2am after the bar. We still called it the Irving, since it was an Irving gas station for years. I'd always get one of those crappy microwaveable cheeseburgers and a Gatorade, then get out quickly. Then the rest of us would spend at least 10 minutes outside for the guy I was dating at the time to stop dicking around inside, chatting with the cashier. Thanks for the memories!
Living in a market that was largely untouched by both Circle K and 7-Eleven until a couple years ago, I have a few things to add. 1] The Circle K rebranding is not quite complete here. Couche-Tard bought the Holiday Stationstores brand here in I believe 2016 or 2017. I believe one of the stipulations of the sale is the Holiday name had to be very gradually sunset, to the point that in 2023 renos of existing locations and builds of new locations carry the Circle K color scheme but are still branded as Holiday. 2) 7-Eleven exited this market sometime in the early 80s, selling their company stores and franchise rights to Ashland Oil, and all the stores were converted to SuperAmerica. Then in between 1990 and 2016, Ashland was acquired by Marathon, the non-gas stores were sold, the SA stores operated as a cobrand with Speedway which was later spun off by Marathon, the SA stores and Minnesota refinery were sold to a private firm, Speedway then bought back all the non-refining assets of SA, finally rebranding them as Speedway, and then a few months later 7-Eleven announced they were acquiring Speedway. BUT! The Speedway brand apparently carries enough regional cachet that they aren’t rebranding, yet you can still get Slurpees and Big Gulps there.
All of this is to say that these 2 behemoths of convenience stores exist here but with almost none of the brand recognition.
Holiday Station Stores are so ingrained in my area that it would be a huge culture shock if they rebranded too quickly. I think they would have lost profits and stores had they completely rebranded too soon.
Funny, I just posted a comment about Holiday. It will be a sad day when the Holiday brand dies.
I’m so glad you used the Bill and Ted clip.. every time I see a circle k I think of that bodacious line from the movie
I've been buying gas at Circle K for the last couple of years. They tend to be the cheapest stations in town, and if you sign up for their "Easy Pay" program, you get an additional 10 cents off a gallon. I rarely shop the inside of the stores since it's mostly filled with sugary/fattening/unhealthy food and drink options, but their gas prices are great!
Being from quebec I never heard of circle k until around 12 or so years back traveling to ontario and finding all the mac's stores (which I assumed were owned by couche-tard) had changed to circle k's and then our local couche tard's were upgrading to get the food counters and polar pop fountains like seen in the video. Thanks for this video it awnsered a few of my ?'s.
i actually work for Circle K and you didn't mention the self checkouts that some stores have. I finally happened to move to a store where one exist and they are NOT like walmart or Sam's Club! its very interesting that they use a set of 4 AI Cameras to allow you to place your items on it's platform while it visually scans your items, lets you check out and pay for said items. but its not always correct and I've noticed one major issue is that since its considered a "self-checkout" 90% of anything done on it minus cigarettes, alcohol, ebt, fuel discount cards, gift cards and coupons or discounts is done by the customer right? well if a customer is using the ai camera system and we as an employee are busy checking another customer they could potentially steal an item even if they arent trying to. im sorry but i wish the self check-outs would go away!!!!
But then you would loose the jobs for all the people who program and build the AI system and do upkeep on the machines :)
Those self check outs are my fave ❤❤❤
I went to a Circle-K not long ago and saw the new self checkout, it was maddening. One employee was working, doing sandwiches (inventory) and things, and the other employee was guiding the customers to the self checkout as they just stood there leaning on it just watching, it was the silliest thing I've ever witnessed. "Here, do this yourself but also, I'ma lounge here and watch you".
Wow, in Colorado here and never seen a c-store with self checkout! What a wild time to be alive 😂
@@Not.Giuseppe similar to how Safeway supermarket has a person that oversees the operations of the self-checkout machines. If someone has a problem or needs an ID check then the employees and come over and check the ID or fix the issue.
You should make a video on Quik Trip! They are growing rapidly and it seems like every town has one being built.
Phoenix is Circle K's "hometown"...their original store design was a block building with an upsweft roof with exposed beams and a large glass storefront (as in the B&W photos). Most of these stores have gone on to other retailers but still have the design features. Here QuikTrip entered the market 10 years ago and is now the main competitor to Circle K.
I hate the circle k on 107 th ave and Indian school
I worked for a very good friend who had a friend sized Circle K. This was back in the day when your soft drinks or full service. I work the swing shift 3 to 11 p.m. shift which means I have the influx of middle-school and high-school students coming in right after school.
The analysts as I am I recognized his profit loss in Theft was narrow to candy and chips which pretty much meant if we're the high school students who welcomed them self to those items without pay.
I put up a sign for students at a time allowed in the store between 3 and 5 p.m.
Store profit margin increased and the theft lowered dramatically.
The students were not pleased with that sign so I thought of another exercise to increase sales in the soft-drink department.
I simply turn the machines around to face the back aisle and made it feasible for self-service drinks.
I remember putting up a sign saying "Serve Yourself" it was less work for us the students loved it as did most of the patrons and as we know the margin of profit is great with soft drink.
This occurred in Las Vegas and we became Circle K's first or you offered Self Serve soft drinks
How about the rise and fall of Eastbay. When I was in middle and high school everybody loved getting those magazines and circling the shoes and apparel you’d probably never get lol.
Had a Kangaroo Express near me in Colonial Heights VA. Wondering what happened to it now that it’s a Circle K! Thanks Company Guy
I'm from Canada. I swear everyone I have ever talked too is under the assumption that Circle K expanded into Canada and bought our biggest convenience store franchise (Mac's Milk). Essentially brute forcing there way into the market, similar to what Target did... This video is a complete suprise to me!
I'm from Canada, too. I'm surprised that Mac's didn't get a mention.
And Becker's. There's one Becker's left in Pembroke, Ontario. I'm sure there might be more, but that's the last one I saw. Before that it was over 20 years.
Does Couche-Tard brand exist across Canada or only in French speaking regions?
@@Foersom_ I think that it's only in Quebec, because I have never heard English speakers mentioning it.
@r.foersom seulement au Quebec. Only in Quebec. There are some French towns in Alberta, but the map won't load to see if any are out there, but if there were you'd think some would be in Ontario in the predominantly French speaking towns.
"I cannot think of any other company where the name of it describes the logo."
[Target and Delta Airlines have entered the chat.]
A video going into 7-11 franchisees would be interesting. I was in Japan recently and the stores there are on another level compared to the US
So many companies fell and... rose again. Thank You, Company Man
Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.
I just saw your video on Buc-ee's recently
(good video)😃 and it said that we'll have a store in Mebane North Carolina. You should do a video on Sheetz!
I remember in college, there were two Circle Ks across the street from my dorm. It was great, because if you wanted something at night and couldn't find it at one of the stores, you could just go across the street to the other one
LOL I grew up in Quebec (Eastern Townships) and I have been in many Couche-Tards/Provi-Soirs during the 80's and early 90's and to know that their corporate head-honchos bought Circle K... just freaking amazing. And the company got an expansion into Europe now as well? Incredible business skills.
Fun fact the stores are only called Couche-Tard in Quebec. Its called Mac's everywhere else to my knowledge
We got Circle K here in Ireland a few years ago. It wasn’t until I heard it mentioned in some true crime story that I realised it was a big American brand. They have a great loyalty programme over here where you get free treats and stuff
Terribly pricy
Here in Amarillo, TX about a year ago Circle K just open its 1st store. I love it. It reminds me of going to Lubbock, TX to visit my daughter at Texas Tech. She always go to Circle K and glad they open one in Amarillo, TX. I think they are opening 2 more in Amarillo, TX cant wait
Circle K also run Holiday Stores
Couche-Tard is an interesting topic in itself. I worked in a Mac's for 10 years. At the time I started, they had Mac's, Becker's, Mike's Mart, and Couche-Tard. The eastern part of the country including Quebec had Couche Tard, while Ontario west was all rebranded to Mac's.. Then when they purchased Circle K, they did that rebrand. I haven't been in a Circle K yet though.
It seems like bc of the buyout it seems more corporate and I don’t like shopping there
@@Bitbatgaming oh it was corporate when I worked there. Everything has to be just so, even if it physically won't fit the way they want it.
“Strange things are afoot at the Circle K..”
"This is most non, non-heinous"
Whoa!
I'd say Target's logo describes it's name pretty well... Love the content, keep doing your thing.
Can you please make a video on the rise and fall of The Wiz? It was a major electronics store in the northeast from the 70's to the 90's that died in 2003.
Nobody Beats The Wiz. Except bankruptcy.
@/// Mᴏᴅ Bᴏᴘ Bᴇᴀᴛ Thanks. I'm thinking he should try Crazy Eddie too.
"I'M THE WIZ, I'M THE WIZ, I... AM...THE... WIZ............I'm the wiz!"
@@100percentSNAFU 😆Seinfeld reference! I always wondered why they chose a king's costume when the name of the store was The Wiz.
I know of one other company that the name describes the logo. It’s “Square D” which makes electrical panels and a lot of other electrical infrastructure.
Circle K doesn't have many stores under their own name around me. But their parent company _did_ buy major local chain Holiday Stationstores in 2017. So far they haven't rebranded it -- Holiday is just _too_ well-known here, I imagine -- though I suspect they've consolidated a lot of the operations. (Employee uniforms have said "Circle K" since then, for one.
Meanwhile competitor Speedway bought out SuperAmerica around then too, and _did_ rebrand them all as Speedway. But the stores are (in my experience) still a bit shabbier inside than Holiday's, and the name wasn't nearly as familiar here as SuperAmerica. 7-11's parent company bought Speedway in 2020-21, but has yet to rebrand them as 7-11.
I'm seeing more and more Circle K branded stuff in my local Holiday stores, so I'm guessing a complete rebrand to Circle K for the stores themselves is only a matter of time. I'd hate to see it, Holiday is my favorite local chain, but as long as they keep the high quality of the current stores, I won't gripe too much.
@AaronOfMpls, my town had a Speedway but it's now Marathon. Before Speedway, it was Hess's.
I’m a employee of k when they took over corner store that was fun
I AM A FOOD ACCOUNT
Bill & Ted was filmed in Arizona, explains why the Circle K featured so prominently :D
Circle K's in my experience have consistently average. Nothing spectacular, nothing really wrong.
(:
1. I got a new fancy 4K quality TV and this is the first UA-cam video I’ve watched on it that has a quality high enough for me to realize it’s SO PRETTY
2. The reason I like Circle K is the fresh grind coffee machines they put in somewhere in the past 1-3 years. I’ve since seen them other places but it was the first and is currently the only convenience store around me with it, so I often stop there for gas just so I can get the coffee 😂
Was in Arizona last weekend and went to the gas station there. I’ve never seen them in Maryland interesting this video comes out now!
Couche-Tard bought all the old Statoil filling stations in the Nordics and Baltics as well as Topaz in Ireland, which was Statoil until the 2000s. Now in Ireland we have a massive amount of Circle Ks but almost all of them sell fuel, there's a handful of standalone Circle K convenience stores in larger cities but that's it. I thought it was silly at first, given Topaz was a relatively new brand itself (consolidating what were the Shell and Esso networks as well as Statoil), but it's won me over. Plus they have the corporate strength to invest in EV charging, they're rolling out 350kW units across the network now
I was watching a Japanese movie a few months ago and was surprised to see a Circle K.
Couch-Tard which is french "sleep late" but is referencing a person who sleeps late known as a "night owl" hence their logo. It is a Quebec based convenience store and was known for being the first convenience stores in Quebec to stay open until 11:00pm.
All the "Mac's" convenience stores (owned by Alimentation Couche-Tard since 1999) in Canada rebranded to Circle K in 2017, and frankly they're a lot better now. The renovations really upped the quality (a lot of Mac's locations were kind of old and run down in my area of western Canada).
But Macs used to have this lollipop and i dont think circle k has it . I used to love that
Love your videos. My husband and I would love a video about Casey’s General Stores - the best convenience in the Midwest!